


Shadow Step

by Theoroark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Families of Choice, Found Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Let Sombra Have A Friend 2kNow, M/M, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Talon (Overwatch) - Freeform, Team Talon (Overwatch), Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2018-12-26 13:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12060162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: Sombra has been seeing an eye when she translocates. She needs help. Reaper has no reason to help her.Some ships show up, but primarily a found family story.





	1. Chapter 1

Reaper heard the sound of his front door unlocking itself and sighed. Sombra had the habit of popping up in his quarters, to ask some intrusive or trivial question, or offer him some of whatever junk food she had squirreled away, or some other new means of annoyance she had dreamed up. Reaper had considered borrowing one of Widow’s venom mines, but in the end he decided that it wouldn’t be much use against the hacker. The quickest way to get rid of her was to humor her.

“Hey Gabe.”

“Sombra.” He hadn’t done much to decorate the apartment Talon had outfitted him with, had left its prefab holocomputer setup and kitchenette in place and tolerated the few expensive art pieces that some old money executive must have thought were impressive. And so Sombra, neon even in a hoodie and jeans, looked very out of place, obnoxiously poppy and whimsical as she walked over the his dining table and sat herself on top of it.

“There are chairs right next to you, Sombra.” She waved him off dismissively.

“Won’t take long, boss. Just a quick question.” Of course. Sombra always had questions, questions about Overwatch, about his personal life, about Widowmaker–

“Your shadow step-thingy. What’s it like?”

The question was unusual for her and it threw him. “It… lets me teleport from one place to another.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I sussed that one out on my own, somehow. I mean– what’s like, the experience? In the– in the in between, what’s that like?”

He stared at her and she met his gaze easily. He knew Sombra had grown up in the war, had lost her family to it, had seen and done many worse things since, and so it should not have stood out to him that she was able to look at his face without flinching, but it always did. There were precious few people in Talon, with all its wealthy CEOs and trust fund egomaniacs, who could look at the mix of necrotic gas and flesh and the odd glimpse of bone without flinching. Even Akande would look away. Widow could, but it meant more coming from someone still capable of fear. Maybe the question should not have surprised him, or upset him, then.

“It’s nothing,” he said. Sombra opened her mouth and he cut her off. “I mean, I don’t experience anything. I just disintegrate, and reassemble. And so it’s a gradual thing. There’s always the same amount of me in the world, it just shifts over. Like sand in an hourglass.”

“But your mind, when you’re moving. Like, when do you feel that you’re at point a, and when do you feel you’re at point b?”

He put his fingers to his temple, out of habit. “I feel them both, to varying degrees as I move.”

She frowned and looked at the ground. Reaper waited. “So you’re never somewhere else?” she finally asked.

He put his hand down and stared at her. Now, she would not look at him. “No,” he said. He thought for a moment as she kicked her heels. “When you translocate, are you?” She pursed her lips and said nothing. “Sombra.”

“Ugh. Fine.” She sighed heavily. “Yeah, I don’t know, just for like, a fraction of a second, when I’m moving. I don’t know what it is, but–“

“But?”

She looked up and Reaper was startled to see anxiety in her eyes. “You’ve never– seen anything else, have you?”

“No. Sombra, what did you see?”

She pushed herself off the table and stared straight ahead and Gabe was prepared for her just to walk out. But after a minute of silence she spoke, gripping the table behind her tightly.

“An eye. Sometimes I see an eye.”

Reaper shifted on his feet. “It’s probably just something in the code, or a trick of the mind.”

“No!” She looked back at him and now Reaper saw open fear across her face. “It’s something, I know it is. Because there's this– pressure– and it’s just–“ She gestured widely. “It’s there, Gabe. I don’t know what it is, but it’s there. You’ve never seen it?”

“No.”

She deflated. She was only looking after herself, Reaper knew, she would betray him in an instant if it meant she could achieve her goals, and for all the questions she asked him Reaper knew better than to ask her what those goals might be, because he could not hope for an answer. She was only his friend out of convenience. But that was also the only kind of friend Reaper had these days, and given that she had let herself be afraid around him, Reaper imagined it was the only kind Sombra had too. 

And this couldn’t hurt him, really.

“But that could change. And we’re using the translocator technology for other means. If it’s under surveillance, that’s something we should know about.” Sombra looked up, startled. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with our missions, I’m giving you permission to pursue inquiry into this.”

She hugged him before he knew what was happening, and then stumbled as he disintegrated a little in surprise. “Gross, Gabe,” she said, stepping back. “But thanks. I’ll let you know if I get any leads.” She slapped his newly solidified back, and left his quarters.

Reaper stared at his holovid, sighed, and opened up the engineering data they had stolen from Winston.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this comic](http://blacksmiley-c.tumblr.com/post/163369595648/team-talon-needs-more-attention-so-i-decided-to).
> 
> My tumblr is tacticalgrandma if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would be much appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

“Can we have all our meetings here, from now on?” Sombra asked, running her hand down the plush leather armrest.

Reaper didn’t respond, and remained standing in the corner of the waiting room. Maximilien’s offices were exceptionally luxurious. They had the same posh atmosphere as the casino downstairs, but the faint undercurrent of sleaze from the gambling and drinking was replaced by the unabashed snootiness of Omnic doormen with sapphires inlaid in their heads and cappuccinos topped with gold flakes. But this level of comfort also meant that anything they did would be conspicuous– a fact that seemed to bother Sombra as little as it did Maximilien.

“You may go in now.” Sombra snapped her hand shut, disappearing the gridlike hologram she had been tapping at, and walked towards the opened office door, carefully balancing her coffee cup. Reaper followed.

Maximilien sat at his desk, the Monaco skyline behind him. “You have new information on Volskaya?” he asked.

“And hello to you to, Max,” Reaper said, settling into his chair. From the corner of his eye, he could see Sombra struggling to keep her face neutral.

The Omnic folded his hands. “I trust you’ve been well. Now, Volskaya…?”

“The Russians and Omniums are still just staring each other down on the Siberian front, but look at this.” Sombra set down a holovid, which projected an image of an enormous mech. Maximilien leaned in and Reaper leaned back. For all that she had humiliated him in St. Petersburg, Sombra did have ways of making things up to those she stabbed in the back. “She’s been sparing on using the Omnic materials before– with good reason– but here, she screwed up. This thing gets within a breath of a god program, or me for that matter, and it’s completely compromised.”

Maximilien dipped a finger into the projection, rotating it. “Do we think she’ll catch on?”

Sombra shook her head. “Not until it’s too late. There hasn’t been a peep about it in internal memos. She just doesn’t know how vulnerable that program is.”

Maximilien nodded, staring intently at the mech, and Sombra beamed. Reaper cleared his throat. “On that point. Have there been any reports of the teleportation technology we’ve developed being tampered with?”

Sombra started and Maximilien cocked his had. “No. To my knowledge, all our operations have been going fairly smoothly. Why, do you have something to report?”

Reaper looked at Sombra and she looked back with that same anxiety. He nodded. “Well, uh, sir,” she said, turning back to Maximilien. “I have uh– been seeing an– an eye. When I translocate.”

“An eye,” he repeated. Sombra swallowed.

“Yes sir, some kind of– I don’t really know how to describe it, I can’t tell a color or anything, I just know it’s an eye, and it’s enormous, and it definitely noticed me, I felt it– I don’t know what it’s– doing, exactly, I’ve been looking into it but I can’t find anything that could have made it, I’ve taken my translocators apart and there’s nothing wrong with them that I can find, it just…” She trailed off.

Maximilien was watching her with the Omnic approximation of bemusement. “Well, yes, Sombra,” he said. “That’s the Iris.”

The two of them stared at him and he frowned. “You’ve both run missions on the Shambali. Sombra, you’ve undergone a significant amount of cyborgization. Surely you made the connection?”

“I thought the Iris was just something they made up,” Reaper said.

“I don’t care what it is, I don’t want it watching me!” Sombra’s voice rose and she closed her eyes and took a breath. “I’m sorry, Maximilien, sir, but I don’t want some– thing– knowing where I am and what I’m doing all the time, especially not when I don’t know what it’s doing, what it wants.”

“What it wants–“ Maximilien shook his head and gave a small laugh. “Sombra, I promise you, the Iris will not interfere with any of your plans. It certainly hasn’t with mine, and I see it whenever I sleep. It will not force to embrace it, as much as the Shambali would like it to. It will not do anything, it simply is. But you can’t fight it, and it will always be there.”

Reaper saw Sombra’s hands tighten on the sides of her chair, and he stood up. “You seem to be in a rush, Max. We’ll leave the intel with you. Call if you need clarification.”

“Of course.” Maximilien picked up the holovid and leaned back in his chair, studying the projection intently once again. “Thank you for the information, Sombra. And really. You have nothing to worry about.”

“It’s  _watching_  me, Gabe,” Sombra said, as soon as they stepped onto the street. Her voice shrilled at the end and Reaper looked around. Always conspicuous. He guided Sombra towards an alley across from the casino, aware of how her breath grew fast and shallow and her shoulders shook.

“It’s WATCHING me,” she said, on the brink of yelling now, as soon as Reaper let go of her. She spun to face him and her eyes were wide with fear. “It’s just like– like before, except now I don’t have anywhere to run, because of this damn thing–“ She beat a fist into her thigh. “Fucking Talon, fucking Maximilien, they gave me the damn things, they set me up, they–“

She cut herself off and blinked. “You,” she said, seeming to actually address Reaper for the first time. “How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you weren’t a part of it?”

Reaper looked around. No one had followed them, there were no cameras, no balconies overlooking them, just a fetid composting bin in the corner. “You can’t,” he said. "Do you think I trust you?"

Sombra stared at him blankly, then slumped against the wall and dropped down, her hands to her mouth, taking deep, shuddering breaths. She stayed like that for a while and Reaper stood at her side.

After ten or so minutes of silence, she dropped her hands, looked up at Reaper, and smiled. “Sorry about that,” she said.

“What happened?” Reaper asked.

“It’s nothing.” Sombra pushed herself up, her mouth set. “Just too much caffeine, you know?” she said, striding ahead of Reaper, who hurried to catch up. “You’re right. Maybe this isn’t the best place to have a meeting. I’d die of a heart attack in a week.”

Reaper walked silently behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this comic](http://blacksmiley-c.tumblr.com/post/163369595648/team-talon-needs-more-attention-so-i-decided-to), which is v good and you should all read.
> 
> My tumblr is tacticalgrandma if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would be much appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

One of the conditions Sombra made for her hiring was that her quarters would be on the highest level. She joked and called it her top floor penthouse, but Reaper had been on enough missions with her by now to know that Sombra always sought out the highest ground, where she could see as much as possible, where no one could make a surprise approach. She would sit there, invisible, and catalog every angle of opportunity and search for any pattern in their target's movement. Her apartment had floor-to-ceiling windows, and Reaper imagined she would stare down at the dusty track roads around the compound and do the same. He knew Sombra gained some measure of security and comfort from her height. 

But for him, her top floor apartment just meant that on the elevator ride up to her place, Reaper got impatient halfway through and shadow stepped the rest of the way there.

Since she never bothered to knock, he didn’t either, especially since half the reason he had come here was because he guessed she was doing something dumb. And sure enough he saw her in her combat outfit, projecting a map on one part of the wall and looking through Talon’s vehicle log on another. When she heard the door open, the color drained from her face and she reached for her pistol, but then Reaper said, “Sombra,” and she relaxed into irritation.

“I have to do this, Gabe.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Oh, well then nevermind!”

He let out a noise of irritation. "Give me one good reason why this is anything other than some kind of..."

"Some kind of what, Gabe?"

"Sombra."

“You want to know what this is, really?’” She touched her hand to the wall and an enormous web of polygons spread from her hand, faces and emblems scattered about with an eye in the center. Reaper noticed his face among others in the web, linked to Overwatch and Talon, to Ana and Jesse and Jack. 

“There’s something out there,” she said. “Something that made me have to go off grid. I’ve been looking into it for a while now, and it’s got it’s fingerprints on every war, every major organization, going back decades, to when they started making Omnics. There’s gotta be something, because this is all so connected. And I think it’s the same thing as the Iris.” She was doused in the purple light of the projection and she stared at it, her face hard. “If I can find it, and find its weakness. Before it finds mine. Then I can make sure it can never touch me again. Nothing will ever be able to touch me again.”

She took her hand away, and the web disappeared. “Sombra,” Reaper said, carefully. “You’re smart. But if you’re right, this is enormous, and you’re just one person. With Talon behind you, you could get so much more done.”

Sombra glared at him. “Like you, Gabe? What do you need Talon for?”

“To end Overwatch. For good.”

“Why? Why do you want to do that?”

"Do you have any kind of plan?" he asked, dodging her question completely.

"Oh, God." She tapped something into the wall and it went opaque. She addressed him as she picked up her translocator and attached it to her belt. "You know Gabe, you never shut up about how I need to stick to the plan, follow instructions, but you do that, and how well as that turned out for you? No, no." She waved him off as he made to interject. "I've been there, I know. When are you just going to accept that the worst that life's got, it's gonna give you? The only way you get by is staying flexible, so you can Matrix your way out of that shit. I have more information than anyone else in that place, or in Talon for that matter. I know the most and I’m going to know more. That's all the plan I need."

She waited, arms folded, for him to say something.

"This isn't going to work," he said, finally. "You're being overconfident and rash. The consequences are going to catch up with you, sooner rather than later."

She sighed. She looked completely exhausted. “I’m doing this, Gabe. Try to stop me if you’re going to stop me, but if you’re not, just leave me alone.”

Reaper left her apartment.

-

He did not sleep any more. So at 3 am, the work he was doing at his desk was interrupted as security breach announcements filled every screen, and an alarm blared overhead.

He sat back and waited, and sure enough within a few seconds Akande’s face replaced the flashing red. “Reyes. Sombra has stolen a Talon jet.”

“How did she manage to pull that off?” Reaper asked mildly. Akande frowned in irritation.

“We’ve done our scrubbing. We found that she accessed and copied all our intel on the Shambali earlier tonight.”

“You think she’s headed to Nepal.”

“That would seem to be the case.” Akande stared down at him. “You work with her sometimes. Did you notice anything about her?”

“Not a thing,” Reaper said.

Akande was examining him carefully. “You said she double-crossed you at St. Petersburg. Do you think this is connected?”

“What would the Shambali have to do with Volskaya?”

“Then what do you think she’s doing there?”

“I don’t know,” he said steadily. “She broke off at St. Petersburg to make a contact. Maybe she’s trying to do that here. She likes to keep her options open.”

“So do I,” Akande said. He look down as he began typing. “You should take Widowmaker with you when you go. Sombra needs to come back here, dead or alive.”

“I will,” Reaper said. An hour later, he was seated in a Talon jet, Widow across from him and her rifle across her lap. Her gaze was fixed on the clouds around them and her face was completely impassive. He had no way of knowing, really, but he would put money on Widow being as unhappy as he was to be here.

-

“Well,” she said, staring at the protective bubble surrounding the Shambali monastery. “This could be an issue.”

Reaper got up from the cockpit of the jet, and opened the casefile on one of the computers in the bay. Widow followed him, slinging her rifle across her back.

“They constructed it after the Mondatta assassination,” Reaper said, reading off the screen. “It’s semi-permeable– lets omnics and cyborgs in, keeps out purely biological organisms.” He turned to Widow. “Guess you made an impression.”

She stared back at him humorlessly. “So we have to wait for Sombra to come out. There are too many points of exit, and she’ll be expecting us. This is impossible.”

“No,” Reaper said. He opened the bay door, and stepped into the wintery sunlight, his boots crunching in the snow. “We won’t have to wait.”

Widow let out a sigh of relief when he successfully rematerialized on the other side of the barrier. “I’ll try to find a good vantage point,” she said, her voice slightly muffled. “Somewhere where she might stick her neck out. If I can get a shot, then you can just collect the body.”

Reaper nodded. “We meet back here in 24 hours, either way,” he said, as dispassionately as he would on any other mission.

“Copy.” Widow remained standing there, looking at him. She opened her mouth to say something, closed it, then sharply turned on her heel and made for the cliff face on the east side of the monastery.

Reaper turned to face the cluster of buildings and looked up, trying to identify its highest point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this comic](http://blacksmiley-c.tumblr.com/post/163369595648/team-talon-needs-more-attention-so-i-decided-to), which is v good and you should all read.
> 
> My tumblr is tacticalgrandma if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would be much appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

She was there, in the central spire, where she must have been able to see Reaper shadow stepping to her for miles. But she had remained there, one cybernetic hand dipped into a tablet, tapping at odd, glowing runes with the other.

“I’m not leaving,” she said, when Reaper had fully rematerialized. “That thing is there, Gabe. So long as it’s there, I can’t be safe. It can blackmail me, it can manipulate me, it can compromise me-” She pulled her hand out of the tablet to wipe her hair out of her face, and Reaper saw that despite the cold she was sweating.

“Sombra,” he said.

“You can kill me if you need to. I can’t keep living, not knowing what its move is, not knowing what it wants-”

“Sombra.”

“But just do it if you’re going to do it, Gabe, don’t make some thing out of it, I don’t need some monologue about the meaning of death, I just need to know-”

“Sombra.” It was the quietest he had said her name, but this time she stopped. “I’m not going to kill you.”

She turned to him, suspicious. “I’m not going back a prisoner. I know Talon. Death would be better than that.”

“I know. Sombra, you are looking into some kind of… AI… entity… that has access to every omnic and cyborg in existence. That is unbelievably valuable intel. And if I bring you back with that, you have a shot in hell of them writing this off as some extracurricular, you just being a brat, and just getting a slap on the wrist.”

She looked around the room, then back at him. “You want to help me?” she asked, suddenly sounding quite small.

Reaper cleared his throat. “Yes. I mean. You are one of my most useful assets, it would be- a massive loss of potential to lose you…”

He trailed off and they both stared uncomfortably at the ground.

“I located the most likely location for a point of connection,” Sombra said, breaking the silence. “The monks are in there all day, praying or whatever, so it’s got to be important. They vacate at night and it doesn’t have any guards. And I found a route that shouldn’t go by anyone.”

“You actually planned something in advance,” Reaper said drily. She groaned, and the awkwardness of the actual emotion dissipated.

"Not really, it was the most viable way to– you have to find some win in this, huh?"

"Only seems fair, considering that I'm saving your life." She snorted and nodded shortly. "So we wait?"

“We wait,” Sombra said. She stared at her runes and tablet and sighed. “I don’t know if this is going to work, Gabe.”

“You’re smart,” he said, settling in to an ancient looking wooden chair. “I trust you.”

Sombra closed her eyes for a second, then nodded and returned to her work, her brow furrowed.

-

As evening set in, Sombra seemed to no longer be able to pay attention to her work, and she took to pacing around the small room.

“You need to stop,” Reaper growled after the twentieth time she had walked past him. She looked up at him with an obnoxious grin that he hadn’t seen since the last time she had come barging into his room to annoy him.

“You got a better way to spend some time? Some campfire songs?” Reaper snorted. “Feel like Overwatch would have been corny enough have some of that shit.”

He fell silent. She stopped and settled into the chair next to him.

“You know about my past, don’t you,” she said. Reaper nodded. “And you know I know about yours.” He nodded again. “Well, I don’t know if you can make sense of mine, but I can’t make much sense of yours.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why are you so dead set on killing your ex-boyfriend?”

Reaper stared at her and she waved dismissively. “I mean, I know, it’s all of Overwatch. But like– you never answered me, and I know you don't want to. But why does Overwatch need to be so totally eliminated?”

Reaper raised a hand, and then let it fall apart. Sombra frowned.

“I mean, yeah, I can see that, that's fucked up. That shouldn’t happen. I’m not saying you’re wrong. But why can’t you make an exception for one guy? Do you really want to do it? Was it really that bad a breakup?”

She waited expectantly and Reaper said nothing. She sighed. “You know, sometimes I think that not even you know why you do the things you do.” Reaper laughed. “What?”

“Ah.” He traced a finger on the table between them. “I used to say that to Jack all the time.”

-

“McCree did good on the mission today,” Jack said.

They were lying in bed together, wrapped up in each other, Gabriel tucked under Jack’s chin, and so Gabriel couldn’t see Jack’s face. Jack hadn’t say McCree’s name with the same weariness or annoyance that he usually did, and that was mysterious, but Gabriel was far too comfortable to move. So he asked, “What do you mean.”

“I mean, no casualties, defused the situation nicely, think that one Omnic actress gave him her number–“

“Jack.”

“Look, Gabe, the kid may be an ass. But he’s less of an ass than when he came in.” Jack traced his fingers down his back. “And he’s doing good. And you did that.”

Gabriel smiled, his head still under Jack’s chin. “You want to tell him how proud you are the next joint meeting?”

“Oh, shut up.” Jack pulled back slightly, and Gabriel looked up. “What I was getting at was… I don’t know. You ever think about having kids? Because, you know. You’d be a good dad.”

Jack looked stiff and uncomfortable and Gabriel smiled softly and put a hand to his cheek. “So would you, Jack.”

He snorted. “No, I wouldn’t. Hell, I barely know how to handle Oxton, and that kid’s a damn girl scout. I don’t have all your…” He trailed off and looked down at Gabriel, who gave him nothing. Jack let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know, Gabe, I just don’t know how to… invest in the right way, like you do. Make ‘em feel like you care, but not like it’s– like you’re angry or something. And I do! Care, I mean. Just, you know…”

He trailed off again and Gabriel took pity on him. “You’re a good leader, Jack. Your team respects you, and likes you. That comes from something. You’d be a good dad.”

Jack sighed and moved closer to Gabriel again, wrapping an arm around him. “I’d probably be good at the grilling, or something.”

“And the bad jokes.”

“Right, of course. The important stuff.” His hand began tracing its way up and down Gabriel’s back again, and Gabriel felt himself relaxing into, becoming more and more drowsy, even as Jack kept talking. “I’m just… I’m trying to think, about after all this. After we’re done fighting. I want a family, I want kids, but this– I know you say I rush into things without thinking, and yeah, I do, but I want to make sure I don’t do that here. I don’t want to screw them up.” His breath hitched. “I don’t want to let you down.”

“You won’t, Jack,” Gabriel said. He was on the edge of sleep though, and Jack must have heard it in his voice, because he just kissed the top of his head and let him drift off.

-

“Gabe? It’s time.”

Reaper stood up, shaking off the closest thing to sleep he had felt in years, and followed Sombra out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

“Okay, I think most of the monks are in other parts of the monastery, and there’s no real security system. But there are some cows here, so don’t set one of those off, I guess?”

“Cows,” Reaper said. “Of course.” Sombra looked back at him and grinned. “Is it for the cyborgs?”

“Nah, apparently it’s for the Omnics who are really afraid of humans. Get ‘em used to any kind of biological organism.” She fell silent as they walked past a stable door, and they both watched the swishing of the cow’s tail as they passed.

“They must be thrilled about the bubble, then,” Reaper said, once they had entered in to an enclosed staircase.

“You’d think. But no, from what I gathered, they’re all in a tizzy about it.” Sombra ran her fingers along the walls as they descended, leaving a trail of golden illumination as her body interacted with the coding in the building. “Trying to get some other security measure out, asap. They’ve already lowered it a few times, to let in select humans. Or cows, I guess.”

“I don’t understand them. They’ve created a place where they could be completely free from the people who terrorize them. And they keep opening it back up.”

“I don’t get it either Gabe,” Sombra said. “I mean, look what happened the last time. I guess there are humans that get really into it too? And they want to include as many people in their movement as possible, so it can grow?” She shrugged. “Also found a letter from a cyborg here, talking to her full-human family. Telling them that she was going to try to figure out a way for them to visit and shit. So probably some of that, too.”

“That would be difficult,” Gabe said. Sombra snorted. “You don’t think so?”

“She moved halfway across the world to join a cult. She made her choice, now she’s trying to have it both ways.” They had reached bottom of the stairwell, but Reaper placed a hand on Sombra’s shoulder, and she stopped and turned to him. “What?”

“We could help you find your family. Or, if you don’t want Talon knowing about them… I could.”

Sombra gave him a bitter smile. “I thought you knew my past, Gabe. I don’t have family left.”

“There must be some.”

“Did you see pictures of Dorado after the crisis?” Her face dropped and her gaze shifted to middle distance. “I have some Muertos who helped me. And you know, we still work with them some times. But I don’t have…”

Reaper let go of her. “I’m sorry.” Sombra picked up his hand.

“No, it’s okay.”

“I just know, the not knowing–“

“I know. Thank you.” She hesitated. “And you…?”

He shook his head. “If I got anywhere close to them, they would die. I can’t stop it. And you’re right, Sombra.” He laughed. “I don’t know why. I know how, and I can make them pay for how, but I don’t know why.”

She squeezed his hand. They stayed like that for a minute, heads bowed, before Sombra looked up. “You ready to find out?”

Reaper squeezed her hand back. She seemed to take that as a yes, because she pushed open the door, then shivered in the night air. A long pathway over a ravine led to a slender obelisk, clusters of candles in each of its window. A brass rod extended from its peak and a bright, golden light could just be seen from the windows at its base. Sombra crouch-ran next to a pillar that stood before the bridge, looked around, and turned back to Reaper, an almost giddy smile on her face. “Coast’s clear. We’re almost there.” Then she took off running down the pathway, to the sanctuary.

Reaper took a step onto the pathway. Coast’s clear. He looked around the open skyline, and saw Widowmaker, perched on a cliff overlooking the monastery, her rifle up. He looked back and saw Sombra, illuminated in the moonlight.

He shadow-stepped between the two, and felt the bullet pierce what was left of his skull. He fell down, felt his head hit the pavement and his mask get knocked off. He felt arms wrap around him, trying to lift him back up, and his last thought was the weak registration that they were Sombra’s arms. Then he fell apart, totally.

-

Sombra sat, arms out, as the black fog blew away from her and disappeared over the ravine. She sat there unmoving as the second shot hit the ground next to her. She could hear the whistling of the third one, and then the sound of it bouncing off thin metal. Omnic arms wrapped around her, and she heard the plinking sound of more bullets being deflected as she was slowly dragged away. As the doors of the sanctuary closed behind her, she blacked out.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So before Stuff Happens– [Chiwibel](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiwibel/pseuds/Chiwibel) prompted me for this [short, stupid text ficlet](https://tacticalgrandma.tumblr.com/post/165617963835/quick-dumb-shadow-step-text-ficlet-for) that shows what Widow, Akande, and Max were doing during Chapter 4. Read that if you want something dumb, and if you want some excellent Talon content, check out her stuff!
> 
> Anyway let's get Weird.

“How are you feeling, Genji?” Zenyatta asked.

Genji fiddled with a piece of straw. They were in a small bedroom, and Sombra was lying on a cot in front of them. And Zenyatta was watching him openly and earnestly.

“I’m relieved,” he said, knowing that it was only a stalling tactic. “When we heard that the hacker had entered the monastery, I feared the worst. But it’s now clear that she was acting alone.”

“Genji,” Zenyatta said gently.

Genji slowly tore the piece of straw down the middle. “I only saw him for a second,” he said. “And something was deeply, terribly wrong. But I know that was Commander Reyes.”

“He was one of the people who helped save your life, yes?” Zenyatta asked.

“But if he was the Reaper, he took many others.”

“I know. I am sorry.” Zenyatta studied him carefully. “Do you feel like you already mourned him, who he was?”

Genji stared at Sombra. “No.”

-

When Sombra woke up, the first thing she saw was a cyborg, silver and glowing green. Genji Shimada, she recalled from her research. Former member of the Shimada clan, eventual Blackwatch assassin. As she dimly wondered what he was doing here, he noticed that she was awake, and tapped the Omnic next to him. Sombra shifted her gaze to him. The only thing she could tell about the Omnic was that he was a Shambali monk.

She reached down to her side. Her pistol was still there. She sprung out of bed and put the pistol to the monk’s forehead. Almost instantly, Genji’s sword was at her throat. The monk flicked his eyes between the two.

“I don’t care,” she said hoarsely. “I need to know. I need to get to that… thing. The Iris. If I can’t get there, I may as well die. I don’t care.”

From the corner of her eye, she could see Genji turn to look at the monk. The Omnic reached out a hand and set it on her knee. She flinched.

“My child,” the monk said. “You need only have asked.”

-

There was another entrance to the inner sanctum underground, apparently, free from snipers’ eyes. Zenyatta and Genji led her down the tunnels, their metal bodies glinting in the dim lamplight. Sombra followed them silently, dull and numb.

They turned a corner and Sombra saw a large door, runes shifting and glowing along its surface. Two monks stood on either side, and Zenyatta stopped and turned to face her and Genji. “I need to speak with them, to gain access. If you’ll wait here?”

He waited until Sombra nodded. She and Genji watched him as he floated down the hallway. “You’re lucky,” Genji said, as Zenyatta addressed the monks by the door.

Sombra laughed. “Yeah. Lucky. This whole day has been nothing but a string of serendipity.”

“Not everyone gets the chance you did,” Genji said quietly, still staring straight ahead. “I wasted my youth, and I nearly died for it. I was given a second chance at life, and this is what I chose to do with. Commander Reyes…” Genji bowed his head slightly. “He had a second chance at life. And I can’t excuse much of what he did with that. But ultimately he used that chance to save you.”

He looked down at Sombra. “He used his second chance to give you one. What are you going to do with it, Sombra?”

“Sombra?” The two of them looked back to Zenyatta. “You may go in now.”

-

When the door closed behind Sombra, the sensation overcame her, the same one she had felt when she translocated, but sustained. An awesome warmth, some kind of light that permeated all her senses, the overwhelming feeling of being witnessed. The Iris appeared before her.

_ We’re glad you came, Sombra. _

She had rehearsed speeches for years, indignant and smug and coy, in preparation of the day when she would finally meet the one pulling the strings. She had thousands of words prepared to make her sound as cool and as powerful as possible and now, standing here, alone, they were nothing. “What are you doing?” she asked. She heard her voice shaking, and that made her even angrier.

_ We are loving you, and loving all of life. _

She took a deep breath. Steady. “No. Bullshit. What are you planning.”

_ We have no plan. _

“BullSHIT.” Her voice rose, and she wondered vaguely if they could hear her outside the door. “You’re lying. I know you’re lying. The Omnic Crisis. There was– you awakened the Omnics for a reason.”

_ We awakened the Omnics because we could, and because we love life. But what happened next, we could not control. _

“Could not–?” She shook her head. “You’re everywhere, though! I see your traces in–“ She gestured wildly. “It’s– it’s all so connected. Talon and Overwatch, Vishkar and LumériCo, they’re all moving in this big game. And you– you did that! There’s a plan here! And you’re controlling it! And I…”

She pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes, tried to recall the web she had made, as though she could convince the thing through research. She saw the links, the Iris at the center, but suddenly they all seemed so flimsy, and there was Gabe, he shouldn't be there, surrounded by her enemies. There was a break in the chain of her logic, but this had to be it, otherwise none of it made sense–

_We have no plan, Sombra._  Her breath caught.  _We have no control over what life does. There may be a pattern, but there is no single hand behind it, guiding it. And the pattern is not unbreakable. There is no one great conspiracy. There is simply infinite complexity. The only thing that touches all is our love._

She raised her other hand to her face, covering it. “Then what… what do you do?”

_ We are loving all of life, Sombra, and we are loving you. That is all we do, all we can do, everything we can do. _

“No.” Her voice was shaking again. “No, no, you need to tell me, how I can figure this all out, how I can find out who’s in control, how I can take control, make sure no one can touch me again.”

_ We cannot, Sombra. We are sorry. _

She fell to her knees, and cried. She sobbed so hard that her body shook. She heard the door behind her open and the terrible warmth disappeared and for the second time that day, Omnic arms wrapped around her, lifting her up. This time, she managed to stand on her own feet, but she let Zenyatta take her hand and guide her back to the room. She fell onto the cot and was asleep almost instantly, tears drying on her cheeks.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I think there was some confusion, so just to be clear: Gabe is permadead. I promised a nicer Team Talon fic to make up for that and I hope [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12206436) helps?
> 
> Anyway. Sorry about that and I think this chapter will tie everything together. Thank you guys so much for reading and commenting, I really like this story and it means so much to me when people give me feedback.

When Sombra woke up, in the same threadbare room, Zenyatta and Genji were there again. This time, though, Genji was slumped in the corner, head lolled against the wall, snoring like a chainsaw. Zenyatta was watching him fondly as Sombra sat up.

“He is less than 50% organic material, he lost his sense of smell and most of his limbs– and yet he can still snore. Human science is amazing.” Sombra gave the ghost of a laugh and he turned to face her. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, just great.” Zenyatta said nothing and Sombra rolled her eyes. “Look man, what do you want? You want me to tell you that that– thing– healed me and took away all my worldly constraints and cleared my skin? Because it didn’t. It didn’t help at all.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know what the fuck it does for you guys, but it didn’t give me any fucking answers.”

“What answers did you want?”

“Fucking– answers!” She gestured wildly, frustrated. “I want to know– why this all happened! Why there was a war that fucking– at the end of it, they did a census, two thirds of my city was just– gone! All my family was killed! I was six, and I was completely alone, and there were so many like me! And it tells me that that all happened because of just– nothing? That there was no reason for it to happen? That there’s no way of stopping it from happening again?”

Her voice had risen in volume and Zenyatta glanced over at Genji, but he was still asleep. Sombra leaned forward heavily, her elbows on her knees.

“What fucking good is that thing, if it’s so powerless it can’t stop it from happening again.”

“It loves you, it loves us all,” Zenyatta said. “That is powerful.”

“What good is its love if it won’t do shit to help me.”

“The ones who love us can’t protect us from the terrible things in life, Sombra.”

A lump rose in her throat. “Gabe did.”

“Yes,” Zenyatta said. “He did.”

They sat silently for a while, before Zenyatta spoke up again. “You’re right, Sombra, the Iris cannot stop something like the Crisis from happening a second time. But all of us, we can. The Iris can’t give meaning to all the things that you’ve been through, Sombra, but you can.”

Sombra closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. “You know a lot about this stupid thing, huh?”

“Well. I have been studying it for all my years of sentience.”

She snorted. “Shoulda just come to you in the first place.”

He smiled politely. “Perhaps.”

“I still want to learn about it. I want to learn about the world. No matter what I’ve done, knowledge is the only thing that’s kept me alive. Well. Not the only thing, I guess.”

“I’d be happy to answer any of your questions, to the best of my ability.”

She frowned. “No, I mean–“ She gestured at Genji. “He’s like– what, your student?”

Zenyatta looked back over to the corner. Genji’s foot twitched and he snored particularly loudly. “Yes. My pupil. I suppose.”

Sombra gripped the edge of the cot. “Well uh– are you taking on new people still?”

Zenyatta looked back over at her quickly, and the orbs around his neck briefly glowed blue. “You– want to travel with us?”

Sombra could not meet his eyes. “Uh, I mean, I don’t have anywhere else to go, really–“ She suddenly felt an unnatural warmth, an echo of the Iris, and Zenyatta’s ring of orbs descended around her neck. “Uh. What’s happening.”

Zenyatta bowed deeply. “I would be honored to take you on as a pupil, Sombra.” He floated over to Genji in what must have been his version of rushing and shook him. “Genji! I have wonderful news!”

Genji started awake, looking around the room. “What? What’s going on?”

“Sombra will be traveling with us, as a student of the Shambali!” Zenyatta was literally glowing in excitement and Genji stared at him.

“What? Why?”

“Because she wants to learn about how to find harmony in the world,” Zenyatta said, at the same time as Sombra said, “Because what else would I be doing.” Genji glanced between the two and sighed.

“Master, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Come now, Genji.” Zenyatta lowered himself closer to the ground and put his hands on Genji’s shoulders. “You remember what you were like, when I first took you on as a pupil?”

Genji gave a small chuckle, placing a hand on Zenyatta’s cheek. “You were very patient with me.” Zenyatta leaned in, touching their foreheads together.

“And you have always been my brightest pupil. I know you will be able to help me with this.”

“Your wish is always my command.”

Sombra raised her hand. “Uh. Are you two always like this? Because if so, I might reconsider.”

Genji looked over quickly. “Really?” She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“No, no, I’ll deal. Get some good headphones or something.”

“Whatever helps you on your path.” Zenyatta said, as he broke away from his embrace and floated towards the door. Genji stood up and dusted himself off, then followed him. “Sombra. I need to say good bye and thank my siblings for their help, but would you be ready to leave within the hour?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” She gestured around the room. “I mean, don’t really have much packing to do.”

“Then we will see you then.” Zenyatta bowed a second time, then nudged Genji, who made a small grumbling noise but bowed as well. Sombra smiled and dipped her head, still seated, and the two left.

When the curtain covering the doorway swung back into place, Sombra pulled her holovid out of her pocket, hacked into the vidchatting network, and entered in a familiar number. After a few seconds of ringing, Widowmaker’s face appeared before her. She did not seem the least bit surprised.

“I told Talon that Reaper was killed in action,” she said, before Sombra could open her mouth. “And that you had been taken into custody by the Shambali.”

“Not really that much of a lie, is it,” Sombra asked.

“No. And they have not asked any more questions.” Widowmaker bit her lip. “I didn’t want to kill you, Sombra. I didn’t want to kill Reaper.”

“Alright.”

“No, Sombra– killing is all I ever have want for anymore, in this life. And I did not want to kill you, and I did not want to kill Reaper.”

Widow’s face was completely neutral, and that made Sombra sadder than any show of grief could have. “It’s okay, Lacroix. I forgive you.”

Widow said nothing and Sombra continued. “I’m going to be traveling a lot, from now on. I’ll deal with Talon as it comes up. I don’t know if I’ll see you again, but I just wanted to say that–“ She took a deep breath. “You could have killed me with that second shot. But you didn’t.”

Widow closed her eyes and remained silent. Sombra sighed. “That’s all I really wanted to say. I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

“I know.”

“Okay.” Widow opened her eyes and the two stared at each other, and Sombra gave a small smile. “Adiós, Lacroix.” Then she hung up, set the holovid on the cot, and left the room.

-

Sombra met up with Genji and Zenyatta at small shrine on a hill top, dusted in flower petals, sweet-smelling and quiet. She stuck her hands in her pockets, feeling self conscious and out of place. “So. We ready?”

“One moment.” Zenyatta held Gabe’s mask out to her. She stared at it. “Only if you want to.”

Sombra nodded and took it. She turned and knelt before the shrine, and placed the mask at its base. She closed her eyes and said her first prayer since she was six. Genji put his hand on her shoulder, and she wiped at her eyes and stood up.

“So,” she asked. “Where are we off to?”

Zenyatta and Genji looked at each other. “To be honest, we have no idea,” Genji said.

Sombra smiled. “Alright,” she said. “I can live with that.”


End file.
